"How to speak San Franciscan........Vah-Joy-Nah!"
Posted on 04/19/2026 10:42:48 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
California's blustery San Francisco Bay is home to the Golden Gate Bridge, commercial ports, public marinas and ferry boats. But more recently, a new sight is attracting locals' attention: Eastern North Pacific gray whales.
The whales have brought wonder, as residents and researchers now get to closely observe how they feed, breed and socially engage. They've also brought growing unease: why are so many of them undernourished and dying?
In 2025, a record number of 21 dead gray whales were found in the broader San Francisco Bay. So far this year, seven have died due to a combination of dwindling prey availability, climate change and human causes, researchers say.
The 4,140-sq-km bay is the largest estuary on the west coast of the US. Before 2018, this species of whales wasn't known to stop seasonally or consistently in the bay, bypassing it on their migration route down to Baja California and back up the Arctic, said Josephine Slaathaug, who led a recent study on gray whale mortality in the bay.
The impressive gray whales have the longest annual migration of any mammal, travelling an approximate 15,000-20,000km roundtrip to breed.
"It's a new habitat that they've chosen to utilise," the graduate student at Sonoma State University and the lead author of the paper tells the BBC, noting years of steep declines in their prey in the Arctic.
Many of those that turned up in the bay are adult and juvenile males that are heading to the Arctic. Notably, the whales observed are skinnier than they normally would be at this time of year, Slaathaug and several other researchers tell the BBC.
"They don't have the energy reserves necessary to complete the entire migration back to the Arctic, so they may be driven into the bay by hunger," she said.
Dead or dying gray whales have also cropped up in Washington...
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
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What are San Franciscans putting in the ocean nearby???
Drug overdoses or sewage washing into the bay from streets and sidewalks.
EPA needs to crack down on San Francisco for allowing open air defecation.
It’s probably all the sewage being pumped up the coastline by Mexico into America. Pretty damn sick. Mexican sewage all over the beaches.
I blame China and over fishing.
Because they don't spend any time on the land.
Probably due to their moral character, as much the fault of their parents.
Agreed!
If they were any good they’d get enough people reading. Charging for a subscription is the another step to bankruptcy.
“The breakfast garbage that you throw into the Bay
They drink at lunch in San Jose.”
— Tom Lehrer
I have no doubt that's a contributing factor.
And, as usual, the environmentalists are silent.
No doubt.
I thought it was Japan.
RUNOFF FROM URINE & FECES POWER WASHED OFF SAN FRAN SIDEWALKS.....PROVE ME WRONG
Betcha it’s sewage, wastewater run-off.
I would think that it would be the runoff from what is on the streets of San Francisco.
Raw sewage pollution run off from the streets.
Surprise butt stuff from the San Francisco ferry?
"How to speak San Franciscan........Vah-Joy-Nah!"
“Why are gray whales dying in San Francisco’s waters?”
Because they are near California?
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